Fear and Loathing in Nairobi

Nairobi…the New York City of Africa. I left Mwanza last Saturday and arrived in Nairobi at 11am. On my flight I sat next to a very nice Canadian man who had been working in Mwanza but lived in Nairobi. He filled me in on his family and work, a good connection to have. When I arrived in Nairobi, I was amazed at how posh the airport was. I slipped through customs easily and retrieved my bags. I was greeted by a taxi driver that had befriended Jackie who picked me up and took me to where they were staying.

As we drove through Nairobi, I couldn’t believe how beautiful and modern it was. It was the equivalent of a small town farm girl arriving in NYC for the first time. I stared at the skyscrapers and oooed and awwwed over the beautiful green spaces and flowering trees. A vast difference from the dusty brown terrain around JBFC. We eventually got into the nice residence areas and I couldn’t believe how westernized everything was. We wove through gated communities with beautiful landscaping and every modern convenience. Palaces practically to what I was used to.

We finally arrived at the house belonging to the people that Jackie and Jos were staying with in a community called Lavington. Upon seeing Jackie and Jos, who were eagerly waiting for me, I all but fell into their arms and we had a tearful and joyful reunion. They settled me into the house and we gabbed about things that had happened at JBFC after they left and they briefed me about Nairobi. They informed me that they were moving into a house in the world’s second largest slum, Kibera. They had been volunteering at a school there, teaching Life Skills classes. They were very excited to have me there and I was excited to help them get settled.

However, that night I enjoyed my first hot shower in two months, fast wireless internet, cable television and western food. Melody and Steven, the American couple we were staying with, were very nice and treated me like family. Their two children are currently at universities in the US and thus they treated us like their substitutes. We went grocery shopping at a place called Nakumaat and I was like a kid in a candy store. I had to refrain from saying, “Oh my gosh, they have that here?” every five seconds. After an amazing dinner I all but fell into bed.

The next day was spent moving Jackie and Jos into their new house. Kibera reminded me a lot of Mwanza, but a bit more compact. Lots of shanty shops bunched together and street venders selling everything you could imagine. Thankfully, Jackie and Jos were moving into one of the safer areas and so people were very nice, respectful and welcoming. Their house was very bare when we moved in and lacked things like a refrigerator, oven, stove and running water. They did have electricity, however, which was the one thing they were not expecting to have. Steven and Melody said their goodbyes, told the girls to visit them as soon and as often as they liked and reminded us to stay safe and be smart. With that, we began to settle in.

After shifting things around, we decided to take a “mat,” short for “matatu” (the Kenyan version of a trotro or daladala) to a huge shopping complex about 5 minutes away. Once there we were on the search for groceries and furnishings. After an hour or so we decided to head back home and try to settle in more. The next few days went by very fast. We spent a lot of time shopping for groceries (they had no fridge to store things in, so we bought a lot of fresh produce everyday), cooking and getting to know the area. Although I was only there for a short time, I felt very comfortable and figured out my way around very quickly.

On Monday I went to the Thai embassy to get my work visa for Thailand. Fortunately the embassy was very close to Kibera and a short taxi ride away. I was a bit nervous going in and was very unsure of what to expect. After entering a big gate and signing in, a Kenyan guard directed me to the nearest building where I proceeded to hurry up and wait. There were more Kenyans trying to get to Thailand than I had expected. After waiting for about 15 minutes I finally got up to the desk and presented all of my documents to the annoyed looking Kenyan woman behind a glass plate. She glanced over everything and said, “5,000.” “Excuse me?” I replied, a bit surprised. She told me that the visa cost a 5,000 Kenyan shillings (about 66 USD). Unfortunately when I looked into my very light wallet it appeared quite sparse. I told her that I needed to go get money from and ATM and that I would be back. She just stared back at me.

After getting a taxi to the big shopping complex near Kibera, I wound up back at the embassy expecting to pay and get my visa. Oh no… “Come back on Wednesday at 4pm” the annoyed looking woman said. I was a bit agitated with this considering my flight was on Thursday at 3pm. I asked if I could get my visa any earlier and again, she just stared back at me. I took that as a ‘no’ and made a mental note to be punctual for my next visit. The next two days were spent being nervous and worried that some freak thing was going to go wrong and that they weren’t going to give me my visa on time. Jackie and Jos tried to get me to relax but I insisted on being on edge. When Wednesday rolled around I couldn’t remember if the woman had told me to come before 4pm or at 4pm. Jackie accompanied me and we arrived at the embassy a little before 4. I was so nervous that something would go wrong, but when I stepped up to the glass plate, the annoyed looking woman found my passport, had me sign a piece of paper and gave me my passport with a 1 year work visa pasted inside. “That’s it?!” I thought. “No interview? No hassle? Nothing? What is going on here?” Jackie gave me a prompt, “I told you so” look and we headed back to Kibera.

The last night there, the three of us decided to go out for dinner. We ended up at a Spanish restaurant and wine bar called Devino. They had a live bad that sang an eclectic mix of American and European music as we sipped red wine and ate pasta and pizza. It was the perfect ending to an amazing week in Nairobi.

The next day we slept in, made a yummy breakfast of eggs, ,chapatti avocado, and tomato. Jackie and Jos refused to accept that I was leaving even though I was packing my life away into my duffle bags. At noon, one of the taxi drivers we had become friends with picked me up from the house in Kibera and Jackie, Jos and I had a bittersweet goodbye. I was so happy that they had found a place for themselves in Nairobi and they were excited for my adventure in Thailand, but we were sad to have to split up yet again (they were the two girls that were asked to leave JBFC). We hugged each other long enough to make the taxi driver uncomfortable and promised that we would see each other again. With that, I hopped in the front seat and waved goodbye to Nairobi, on my way to my next adventure.

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Part of trip: Kenya

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